Love Is an Art
by BornRoyalty
Summary: Caroline wakes to find her bedfellow missing! ;)


**I published this on tumblr about a week ago, and thought somebody here might like to read it too! Please enjoy! One-shot!**

It was the heat that woke Caroline. Sunlight radiated through a crack in the window curtains, warming a sizable stretch her of shoulder and running up over her face making her see orange beneath her heavy eyelids. Blinking groggily through her eyelashes, Caroline pulled the heavy cushion over her head and rolled over to bury her face in the cool expanse of her partner's neck. At least that had been her plan.

Stretching her hands out to find him, she grasped blindly at empty bed sheets. Caroline lifted her head from under the covers reluctantly, looking around the large room and finding no trace of him. "Klaus?" she called sleepily, but there was no answer. Sighing loudly, she rolled grudgingly from the bed. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes and dragging her fingers lazily through her bed kinked hair, Caroline wandered the hall outside their bedroom aimlessly searching for her missing bedfellow. "Klaus?" she called out again, irritated by his silence.

"Kla… Did you not _hear_ me?" she grumbled, upon finding him sitting slumped in the study, his brow furrowed in concentration as he gazed agitatedly at one of his new masterpieces, a tumbler of what appeared to be scotch clutched slackly in his hand. "Isn't it a little early to drown your sorrows?" she teased, walking forward to straddle his waist, resting her forearms gently on his shoulders, and placing soft kisses at his temples while placing with the short hairs at the nape of his neck. He remained wordless, so she continued. "Have you been here all night?"

Setting his drink on the side table, Klaus straightened his position on the furniture, sitting straighter to take her in better. He held her waist firmly, leaning forward and kissing her softly and slowly on the shoulder before sitting back with a sigh. "I couldn't sleep." He said after several minutes of comfortable silence.

"Well, if I'd known that," Caroline teased, running her delicate fingers through his fine hair. "I might have suggested another bedroom activity." She drew her fingers from his hair, moving instead to gently cup his jaw, stroking his stubble with the soft pad of her thumb, and placing lazy kisses on his eyelids and the downturned corner of his mouth, but she couldn't seem to coax a smile from him.

He continued to look over her shoulder, still absorbed in his thoughts as if he wasn't really there with her. His thumbs beginning to mindlessly stroke the sensitive skin on her sides as he mused. Shifting to see what he was looking at, Caroline quietly gasped turning pink both out of flattery and embarrassment. Looking into the canvas, she saw and image of herself staring back at her. The colors he had used brought the painting to life. In the image, Caroline lay spread over their bed, her hair wild, and her arms wrapped comfortably under the pillows, mouth slightly ajar. "I wish you'd told me you wanted a portrait. I'd have sat for you. I'm a mess in that picture." She laughed.

"It's not right." He mumbled, more to himself then to Caroline. Wrapping a messy whisp of her golden hair between his middle and pointer finger, he finally looked in her eyes. "It's not you. I can't capture this." He said taking her in fully. "I can't capture the light. You see it too?"

Caroline laughed, looking back at the painting. "No, the painting is wonderful, it's my wide open mouth that puts me off. God, do I really sleep like that? That's horribly unattractive!"

Klaus chuckled quietly, pulling his hands from their perch on her waist and laced his warm fingers between her own. "That's not possible," he assured her, leaning in to lightly kiss the tip of her nose. "You're always beautiful."

Looking back at the painting a grin spread over Caroline's soft features. "You don't like the painting?" she asked after a while.

"It's lacking in… 'Caroline'." He sighed, irritation creeping back into his voice.

Caroline pulled away from him, walking curiously over to the large portrait, giving it a long methodical look. Before anything could be done to stop her, Caroline grabbed a carton of midnight blue paint and poured the contents all over the canvas, spreading it across the images with her bare hands. Turning back she saw Klaus had not moved and inch, but a smile had eased his brow. "What do you think?" she asked happily walking back to him.

Sitting forward, leaning his elbows on his knees, Klaus shook his head slowly as he took in Caroline's revision, his smile growing wider. "I think… it's very Caroline." He finally admitted.

Caroline giggled, pushing him back into the couch and giving him a long happy kiss. Lacing her paint stained fingers with his own, she began to pull him towards the door. "Where exactly are you taking me, love?" he asked happily.

"I have a little art project in need of your attention back in the bedroom," she purred, closing the door behind her, leaving the new and improved painting behind to bleed into the carpet.


End file.
